Posts
It's also used as a kind of slang or idiom to mean that someone has blushed.
You make me blush = Me haces poner colorado (It'd be similar as "you make me turn reddish/red" as ashamed)
The murderous dysfunctionals who kill children and adults in Colorado make me ashamed of the human race.
We can legislate gun control but we cannot control the dysfunctionals who lurk in the open among us, biding their time ...
like time bombs waiting to go off.
Violence doesn't stop just because it is Christmas. But it seems to jar us more when it occurs during this season.
Unless you are a policeman:
Police figures show a rise of up to 20% over Christmas and New Year. And in 50% of the cases, children get hurt.
As Alex Cavanaugh has staked out the first Wednesday of the month,
Carolina Valdez Miller has designated every 2nd Wednesday as THE KINDNESS PROJECT time
to write about the worth of kindness:
http://www.carolinavaldezmiller.com/
I thought about her project yesterday.
Her latest post is of her experiences in Haiti. The sights, smells, and sounds of Haiti refuse to leave me as they refuse to leave Carolina.
No one comes back from Haiti the same. It renders our Christmas season darkly ironic.
In the end, we craft our prisons, our palaces, our lives
by each decision that eventually become patterns of behavior which in turn become the rudder which takes us to pleasant or dark harbors.
Sandra says I sometimes remind her of Elwood P. Dowd (Jimmy Stewart) in Harvey. There are worse people to be likened to.
Listen to Elwood:
"Well, I've wrestled with reality for 35 years, Doctor, and I'm happy to state I finally won out over it."
"Years ago my mother used to say to me, she'd say, 'In this world, Elwood, you must be' -
she always called me Elwood -
'In this world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant.' Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. You may quote me."
"Myrtle Mae, you have a lot to learn, and I hope you never learn it."
"I always have a wonderful time, wherever I am, whomever I'm with."
"Harvey and I sit in the bars... have a drink or two... play the juke box. And soon the faces of all the other people they turn toward mine and they smile.
And they're saying, "We don't know your name, mister, but you're a very nice fella."
Harvey and I warm ourselves in all these golden moments. We've entered as strangers - soon we have friends.
And they come over... and they sit with us... and they drink with us... and they talk to us.
They tell about the big terrible things they've done and the big wonderful things they'll do. Their hopes, and their regrets, and their loves, and their hates. All very large, because nobody ever brings anything small into a bar."
That last quote says it all:
No one's dreams, hurts, or losses are small. Puppy love is real to the puppy. The tears we dare not shed burn the worst.
What did Mark Twain write?
Nothing that grieves us can be called little: by the eternal laws of proportion a child's loss of a doll and a king's loss of a crown are events of the same size.
Which leads to my cardinal rule:
Always treat people as kindly as you can, for everyone is having a harder time than they appear.
It is the way of Man to be cruel to those who are weak and without power.
Let us be the exception to the rule.
Here is a tune of a poor girl who was treated as the world usually treats those who need but a bit of understanding.
Carolina Valdez Miller has designated every 2nd Wednesday as THE KINDNESS PROJECT time
to write about the worth of kindness:
http://www.carolinavaldezmiller.com/
I thought about her project yesterday.
Her latest post is of her experiences in Haiti. The sights, smells, and sounds of Haiti refuse to leave me as they refuse to leave Carolina.
No one comes back from Haiti the same. It renders our Christmas season darkly ironic.
In the end, we craft our prisons, our palaces, our lives
by each decision that eventually become patterns of behavior which in turn become the rudder which takes us to pleasant or dark harbors.
Sandra says I sometimes remind her of Elwood P. Dowd (Jimmy Stewart) in Harvey. There are worse people to be likened to.
Listen to Elwood:
"Well, I've wrestled with reality for 35 years, Doctor, and I'm happy to state I finally won out over it."
"Years ago my mother used to say to me, she'd say, 'In this world, Elwood, you must be' -
she always called me Elwood -
'In this world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant.' Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. You may quote me."
"Myrtle Mae, you have a lot to learn, and I hope you never learn it."
"I always have a wonderful time, wherever I am, whomever I'm with."
"Harvey and I sit in the bars... have a drink or two... play the juke box. And soon the faces of all the other people they turn toward mine and they smile.
And they're saying, "We don't know your name, mister, but you're a very nice fella."
Harvey and I warm ourselves in all these golden moments. We've entered as strangers - soon we have friends.
And they come over... and they sit with us... and they drink with us... and they talk to us.
They tell about the big terrible things they've done and the big wonderful things they'll do. Their hopes, and their regrets, and their loves, and their hates. All very large, because nobody ever brings anything small into a bar."
That last quote says it all:
No one's dreams, hurts, or losses are small. Puppy love is real to the puppy. The tears we dare not shed burn the worst.
What did Mark Twain write?
Nothing that grieves us can be called little: by the eternal laws of proportion a child's loss of a doll and a king's loss of a crown are events of the same size.
Which leads to my cardinal rule:
Always treat people as kindly as you can, for everyone is having a harder time than they appear.
It is the way of Man to be cruel to those who are weak and without power.
Let us be the exception to the rule.
Here is a tune of a poor girl who was treated as the world usually treats those who need but a bit of understanding.
Let's kill this messed-up world with kindness. You're right: we have no idea what turmoil lies beneath the faces we see every day. Here in SoCal, the freeways are staging areas for Darwin's survival of the fittest. Slowing down, allowing drivers over into "your" lane = a simple act of kindness we can practice every morning on the way to work.
ReplyDeleteMilo:
ReplyDeleteKindness may well be the leaven that is keeping this society from boiling over. The less of it we practice the closer society may come to critical mass. Thanks for dropping by and commenting. :-)
I was beginning to think kindness was something folks no longer cared about.
'We can legislate gun control but we cannot control the dysfunctionals who lurk in the open among us, biding their time ... like time bombs waiting to go off.' So true.
ReplyDeleteI'm very grateful we don't have guns in New Zealand. I truly think I'd leave the county if that happened.
Excellent post, Roland. I shall be bookmarking this one.
Wendy:
ReplyDeleteNo guns in NZ? Another reason I want to go there. Thanks for bookmarking this post. I was beginning to feel as if I were playing to an empty house! :-)
When I say no guns - I mean only if you've got a license for duck/deer shooting etc... Apparently they call it 'sport'. Quite sickening actually.
ReplyDeleteViolence goes up during the holidays because of drinking and drug use. It's hard to fix stupid, especially when mixed with drugs and alcohol.
ReplyDeleteBut, I'm armed to the teeth. Bring it on.
Wendy:
ReplyDeleteMy supervisor hunts ducks and calls it sport. I say if the ducks had rail guns mounted on their wings and could shoot back, then it would be a sport.
On the other hand, he feeds the ducks that swim on the bayou that winds past our blood center. When life becomes hard for him, he stands on the bank, throwing pieces of bread to them. They waddle up to him, quacking with delight -- and for a moment he is at peace.
Walter:
Yes, Mankind will probably die of stupid (which foreshadows my next post). I have a Ruger Super Blackhawk, for it reminds of Sam's Walsh Navy Colt revolver. Getting stabbed in your apartment's outdoor parking lot tends to make you think of self-defense. Have a great Christmas!
Being a Coloradan, I can say there's an awful lot of good here, too, despite the mass shootings that make the news when they happen here. It's a heartbreaking taint for us, now being the not-so-proud owners of three mass shootings. All we can do is try to be kind, try to remember that everyone around is suffering some sort of sadness at any given time, facing their own struggles. We can try to do good and hopefully pull someone out of that.
ReplyDeleteThe Warrior Muse